If you happened to be watching the Steve Wilkos Show in Great Falls, Montana yesterday, you may have had your viewing interrupted by a strange emergency alert warning of a statewide zombie apocalypse. Fortunately for everyone, it was just a hoax.

As the Associated Press reports, it appears that Great Falls affiliate KRTV was hacked by a prankster intent on spreading mistruths about walking corpses. "The bodies of the dead are rising from their graves and are attacking the living," the station's emergency announcer said. "Do not attempt to approach or apprehend these bodies, as they are considered extremely dangerous." According to the Great Falls Tribune, at least four people called in to local police asking whether the alert was real.

You don't know Montana. I still have relations in Montana, and the dead have been arising from the graveyards for years in that state, especially during Oktoberfest. You can recognize them by their bloodshot eyes, slurred speech, and stumbling walk. Oh, wait! That's the drunks. Oh, never mind!

I wonder if society at large is critical enough of stuff like this to prevent a replay of "The War of the Worlds" radio broadcast. A zombie outbreak is a natural modern progression.

That's an interesting thought! I don't think it could happen mainly for one reason. I don't think it could legally be done. A hacker doing something like the emergency broadcast can be done for a short time but to get a War of the Worlds effect it would have to be on going and be carried by multiple sources.

If there was going to be a fake news she they'd have play disclaimers. I remember about 15 years ago there was a TV movie which had a War of the Worlds style only with a meteor or something like that. There were disclaimers every commercial break. Could be really interesting social study though.

Hahaha, reminds me of a few years ago, when someone figured out how to hack into those electronic highway signs and made them display messages like "DANGER, NAZI ZOMBIES AHEAD" and "RAPTORS NEXT 4 MILES"

I wonder if society at large is critical enough of stuff like this to prevent a replay of "The War of the Worlds" radio broadcast. A zombie outbreak is a natural modern progression.

Not so sure people would fall for it today, because keep in mind that in the 20's and 30's, people were way more gullible due to the influx of horror and science fiction that was being cranked out by dimestore novelists at the time, as well as the more "superstitious" time we lived in when people were more fearful of things they didn't understand. The radio was a very powerful media tool as it was the major source of news at the time.

Today, we live in a day and age when nothing is sacred, nor does anything surprise us anymore, and the media is everywhere and too predictable and too full of well, y'know

I remember about 15 years ago there was a TV movie which had a War of the Worlds style only with a meteor or something like that. There were disclaimers every commercial break. Could be really interesting social study though.

Does anyone remember the mid-70's broadcasts of Night of The Living Dead that were on ABC in the wee hours of the night? One time we were watching it, and there was a disclaimer playing on the screen during the newsroom broadcast that the dead were returning to life. Makes me wonder how many people saw that and thought somethng was up?